1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to part of the body structure of a vehicle and, more particularly, to the side structure of a vehicle body.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, a vehicle body side structure includes a side sill shaped in a form of a boxed-channel. The side sill extends in a lengthwise direction of the vehicle body, i.e., from the front to the back of the vehicle. In order to improve the torsional stiffness of the vehicle body, a side sill reinforcement is provided in the side sill for reinforcement of the side sill. Such a vehicle body is well known from, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 61-51,187.
In addition to reinforcing the side sill, a center pillar may be reinforced by a pillar reinforcement. A vehicle body structure having such a pillar reinforcement is well known from, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 61-41,083. However, the reinforced center pillar can still be too low in structural stiffness to adequately withstand torsional loads transmitted to the vehicle body through the sill.
Side body structures of this kind, in which a side sill and a center pillar are reinforced independently from each other by separate reinforcements, are generally insufficient in stiffness to withstand the energy of a collision impact. Consequently, it is hard to prevent deformation of the vehicle body and to prevent noise caused from vibrations of the vehicle body.